


Paranoia Blues

by sabinelagrande



Series: Young Vampires In Love [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Backstory, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, F/M, M/M, Non-Consensual Vampirism, Pouring Out a Delicious Fanfic Smoothie, Putting Canon In a Blender, Sad Backstory, Vampire Clint Barton, Vampire Phil Coulson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-17
Updated: 2014-01-17
Packaged: 2018-01-09 01:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1139716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint's already worrying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paranoia Blues

Clint was hovering.

Not literally; Phil didn't think that he could literally hover, but figuratively he was doing a pretty good job of it. Phil wasn't quite sure what was wrong. Loki was already back on Asgard, but Phil was taking a little more time off to recover. Honestly, he hadn't done much all day except reading a book and doing some stretches. But Clint was bothered about something; he kept walking around the house, fixing things that Phil didn't see a problem with. The third time he came over to fluff Phil's pillow, Phil caught him by the wrist.

"Why don't you come lay down for a minute?" Phil said, moving over, and Clint got in the bed next to him. He seemed oddly stiff at first, but he melted when Phil put his arms around him. "You're freaking out about something."

"Shit, did I upset you?" Clint said nervously.

Phil stroked his hair. "I'm not upset at all. Just tell me what's wrong."

"I'm trying to make sure it's okay," Clint said. "I just want it to be good for you."

"What do you mean?" Phil asked.

"It's a long story," Clint said, after a long pause. "I mean, literally. It's like a hundred and thirty years long."

"Is that how old you are?" Phil asked. Clint had never actually told him before, always skirted the issue.

"I look pretty damn good for a hundred and twenty-nine, right?" Clint said, smirking.

"Tell me," Phil said softly, and Clint sighed. He pulled Phil closer, kissing him on the forehead. 

"So parts of what I told SHIELD are true," Clint told him. "Me and Barney ran off when we were kids and joined the circus, because trust me, it made way more sense at the time. That was when Wild West shows were still the thing, and that's where we ended up. I was still little and cute, and a cute little kid who could do tricks with a bow and arrow was a big draw." Clint paused. "I didn't mean to make that pun, but it's pretty good. But long story short, I spent a long time training, Barney got really pissed off and didn't bother telling me about it, I kinda caught my mentor stealing from the circus, and that was the first time I ever got left for dead.

"Shit changed," Clint said, in that voice that meant he was trying to seem unaffected and failing. "I left Barney and got the hell out of the Wild West stuff, because it was pretty goddamn awful. Headlining at a real circus was way better. Barney joined the military, and I never heard from him again. Dunno if he died in the war, or-" Clint let it hang there, and Phil hugged him tighter for a moment.

"Fast forward to 1920," Clint said, sighing. "This is the fun part."

"It's okay," Phil said.

"Things were going pretty good, actually," Clint said. "We were only a couple weeks into the season, and of all the fucking places, we were in Akron, Ohio. Then I got turned."

Clint paused for a long while. "Who was your sire?" Phil asked gently.

"I never met him," Clint said, laughing bitterly, and Phil's heart clenched. "Remember when I said it was the first time I got left for dead? There are some vampires who don't understand it. Some of them think they're doing a human a favor by trying to turn them, but they don't understand it's not as simple as draining someone and forcing your blood into their mouth. If you drain a human, they'll die. If you drain a human and make them take your blood without completing the ceremony, they'll go mad and _then_ they'll die." Clint sighed angrily. "Some of them do it because they think that's funny."

Clint shrugged. "So someone attacked me, made me drink, and took off. Not sure which school of thought he belonged to, not sure I want to know. That should have been that. It wasn't.

"I don't know how long I was there, not dying and wanting to, but then she found me," Clint said, his expression changing, going soft and fond. "Her name was Rosaline. Didn't know this until later, but Akron apparently had an unusually high vampire population- but in those days that meant, y'know, six. She could have run and she didn't. She stayed there and she let me, and I'll be thankful forever for that."

Clint looked distraught suddenly. "But when I came to my senses, she was laying there almost dead, and all I could figure out was that we both had to feed. What I did next was not my proudest moment, but every town everywhere has drunks on the street, and-"

"I get it," Phil said, running a hand over his hair.

"I had no sire and no more job- maybe it worked for you, but 'turned into a vampire' isn't an excuse most people accept for not being at work," Clint told him. "So she took me in and cared for me like I was her own. I was already lonely and she was the closest I ever had to a sire, so of course I fell in love with her immediately. She was old though, very old. Vlad Tepes, if you were wondering, wasn't a vampire, just a guy who was fucked all the way up, but Countess Báthory was. That's the kind of time frame we're talking about for Rosaline."

Phil's brow furrowed. "Wait, a vampire from the sixteenth century found you in Ohio?"

"Man, when you live centuries, life is super weird," Clint said. "Some days you're just in Akron."

"Okay," Phil said, though it seemed more than a little unlikely to him.

"I think Rosaline was past the point of loving anyone," Clint said. "Once I finally admitted that to myself, our days were numbered. And then one day she just left. I've seen her once or twice since then, but that's it. I think she's, y'know. I think she's ready for her time to come. It's sad, but that's just the way it is sometimes."

Clint let out a breath. "Then basically the rest of the twentieth century happened. Did some mercenary work, tended bar for a while, went to jail, tried to go to med school, got married a couple times, went back to mercenary work. And then SHIELD."

"You went to med school?" Phil said, frowning.

" _Tried_ ," Clint said. "There are only so many stories you can spin about why you have no records from high school before they ask you nicely to leave." He sighed. "So, that's where I'm coming from. I just didn't feel like I could tell you, y'know, before. So if it seems like I suck at this-"

"Hey," Phil said, putting his fingers on Clint's chin and making him look Phil in the eye. "There's nothing else I could want in a sire. Nobody could do a better job. Maybe ninety years ago you got off to a fucked-up start, but you've made it perfect for me."

"I just want everything to be right," Clint said.

"It is," Phil said, kissing him. "Everything is right as rain." He gave Clint a look. "Now stop trying to fluff my pillows. I just got them where I want them."

Clint rolled his eyes, kissing him again.


End file.
